How to Improve Your Employee’s Health and Wellbeing in the Office

When it comes to running a successful business, your employees account for a large part of it. Whoever you have in your operation, your staff are the ones who manage projects, tasks, and deliver results that boost your company’s profits. You may pride yourself on being a good employer, and while you may have the best of intentions, your business could be harming employee health and wellbeing.

Whether you’ve just launched a business and want to get off to the best start possible, or you’re an established business owner and worried about how things are progressing, here is a guide on how to improve your employee’s health and wellbeing.

Create a Comfortable Working Environment

Your employees need to be in a comfortable working environment throughout the day. Staff may find it difficult to work if there’s too much clutter or you’re still using chairs and desks from the dark ages. The height of your desks can cause aches and pains, which you don’t want for your team.

To combat this, Branch Furniture has a guide on ergonomic desk height. They explain that an ergonomic desk height can help employees stay focused and on their work. Make sure you invest in comfy office chairs too, especially when your team will be sitting on them for hours on end.

Allow a Flexible Schedule

Gone are the days when employees would work the typical Monday to Friday, 9-5 pattern. With COVID-19 dominating the world over the last two years, many businesses were forced into remote working and allowing flexibility. However, this has proven advantageous. Allowing a flexible schedule gives the employee more power. You’ll find they’re more productive and happier when working hours that suit them best.

As long as the work gets done and to a high standard, you should begin to implement flexible working in the office. As the world begins to open up and many employees return to the office, you may want to offer a hybrid model. This involves employees working at the office for a day or two, with the rest of the working week at home.

Just think of all the time your employees can save not having to commute. Also, this can reduce their expenses when it comes to transportation and even child care.

Allowing a flexible schedule is a great way to improve your employee’s health and wellbeing in the office at work.

Set Realistic Goals

We understand your primary aim is to reap as much profit as possible in business. However, it can come at a cost to your employee’s health. If you’re setting unattainable goals, your team will struggle to keep up. This can lead to poor productivity, increased anxiety, as well as burnout. To boost your employee’s happiness, you need to set realistic goals.

Employees can only accomplish so much throughout the day. With this in mind, you need to be realistic with what goals you set. Another key role in setting realistic goals is mastering the art of delegation. You need to ensure the right jobs are going to the right staff members. If they’re not, you’ll find your employee’s stress levels will increase, which is never good for business.

Talk to Your Team

Something as simple as taking time out of your busy schedule to chat with your employees can make all the difference. If you’re always in your own office, your team may not feel supported in their position. If your staff doesn’t feel valued, you can’t expect them to stay loyal to your business. A great way to improve your employee’s health and wellbeing is as simple as talking to them.

The best place to start is by hosting weekly meetings with the entire team. Designate a room where you can all sit together and discuss the latest goings-on in the company. If there are any issues or questions regarding business operations, use these meetings to discuss them. How you communicate in meetings matters too. Showing a personal side and caring about your team can go a long way in boosting their health and wellbeing. If there’s one piece of advice we have, it’s to never take things out on your employees! Showing support and guidance is essential.

If your team is too large to all fit in one room, you can possibly have a video chat instead. It is also important to have one-on-one conversations with your staff – again depending on the size of your team.

Encourage Regular Breaks

When working in an office environment, sitting behind a screen for too long can wreak havoc on concentration levels. You can’t expect your staff to stay put throughout the entire day, so make sure to encourage regular breaks. Sure, your team will have a lunch break that they can use to stretch their legs but having regular 5–10 minute breaks throughout the working day is essential.

Regular breaks can decrease stress, improve performance, and give employees a chance to clear their heads. This means when they return to their desk, they’ll be ready to get back to work with a fresh focus and be motivated.

A great way to encourage regular breaks which will improve your employee’s health and wellbeing in the office is by possibly having a game space. You can use a game space to boost morale at work, ultimately increasing employee productivity.

Your office’s game space can just be a break room that has some free snacks, some board games or puzzles, and maybe even some video games. If you do go this route, you obviously need to set the expectation that everyone must use this space responsibly and still be able to get their work load taken care of.

Take the Steps to Improve Employee Health and Wellbeing

When you head into the office in the morning, you want to be greeted with smiling faces from your team. If your employees look anything but happy, it’s time to take action. Investing in their health and making changes can yield fantastic results and help boost productivity and efficiency in the workplace.